Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

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PARTIAL VOLUNTEER MILITARY TO BE GRADUALLY IMPLEMENTED: MND

2004-02-24 16:38:06

Taipei, Feb. 24 (CNA) The Ministry of National Defense will
adjust the nation's military service system in a gradual manner, with
a goal of enlisting 60 percent of volunteers for military service by
2012, a senior official said Tuesday.

Vice Minister of National Defense Chen Ti-tuan made the remarks
in a report to the legislative caucus of the ruling Democratic
Progressive Party (DPP) on the feasibility of implementing an
all-volunteer military service system in Taiwan.

Noting that the military now has 385,000 regular service members,
Chen said a new troop reduction plan will be implemented from this
year to cut the number of troops by 15,000 annually.

Under this plan, Chen said, the number of regular military
servicemen and women will be lowered to 270,000 by 2012.
"By then, our weaponry systems will also have been renovated and
upgraded. Against this backdrop, we can consider adjusting our
military service system from conscription to a volunteer-dominated
one," Chen explained.

According to the defense ministry's plan, Chen said, the
volunteers-conscripts ratio in the military will be adjusted to 60
percent versus 40 percent by 2012.

In addition to weapons upgrades, Chen said several other factors
must also be evaluated before a volunteer-dominated service system
can be put into practice, including whether retired service men and
women have been properly settled, whether the military has groomed an
elite deterrent force and whether relations across the Taiwan Strait
are stable.

The nation's military service system became a hot topic after the
opposition "pan-blue alliance" presidential candidate, Kuomintang
(KMT) Chairman Lien Chan, said in a televised debate with President
Chen Shui-bian last weekend that if he is elected, he will replace
the current conscription-dominated service system to an enlistment
one. According to Lien's idea, the compulsory military service period
for conscripts at peacetime should last for three months instead of
the current one year and eight months.

Speaking at a regular news conference, defense ministry spokesman
Maj. Gen. Huang Suey-sheng said the ministry has traditionally
refrained from making comments on candidates' visions or policy
initiatives.

Nevertheless, Huang said four critical elements must be gauged in
formulating a nation's military service system, namely, the threat
from the enemy, financial resources, supply of regular forces at
peacetime and the supply of reservists at wartime, and young people's
interest in pursuing a military career.

Huang said the defense ministry has conducted an extensive study
on the pros and cons of conscription and enlistment systems.

In the future, Huang said the military will adopt a two-pronged
approach in recruiting service members, under which regular forces
will adopt an enlistment-dominated system and reservists will
implement a conscription-dominated one.

While both the defense ministry and the ruling DPP don't think
introduction of an all-volunteer enlistment service system is
feasible for now, the "pan-blue alliance" -- the KMT and the People
First Party (PFP) -- said it will come up with a draft bill in two
weeks to pave the way for implementing an all-volunteer enlistment
system.

PFP legislators Lin Yu-fang and Chou Hsi-wei said an all-volunteer
enlistment system is a prevailing world trend. "We must tread down
this road which can help us meet the demand of a possible asymmetric,
high-tech war across the Taiwan Strait," Lin said.

He said implementing an all-volunteer enlistment system doesn't
require constitutional amendments. "We need only to enact a new law
for the voluntary military system and retain conscription for
wartime."

According to the "pan-blue alliance's" estimate, it will require
an additional budget of NT$60 billion annually to implement the
voluntary military service system. Under its plan, a private will be
given a monthly salary of NT$30,000 to NT$40,000 and a
non-commissioned officer will be offered a monthly salary of
NT$40,000 to NT$60,000.